Thomas Baumgärtel

Spray banana

Bananenhaus on Karlstrasse. 28 in Duisburg-Ruhrort

Thomas Baumgärtel (* 1960 in Rheinberg ) is a German artist who is also known under the pseudonym "Banana sprayer". His bananas, sprayed using the pochoir technique, reminiscent of Andy Warhol 's “ Velvet Underground Banana” , can be found at the entrances of around 4,000 art museums and galleries in both German and international cities.

Life

From 1985 to 1990 Baumgärtel studied fine art at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences (master class with Franz Dank ). 1985 to 1995 he studied psychology at the University of Cologne . In 1986 he marked an art place with the spray banana for the first time.

In 1996 he and 13 other artists founded the CAP Cologne studio community in Cologne- Nippes , to which 28 artists currently belong. In 1998 he created the first spraygrams. With THITZ and MS Bastian he formed the artist group Kings of Hearts . In the following year, the joint work on German unity began with Harald Klemm. The year 2000 marked the beginning of the multicolored banana pointillism as well as the start of the collaboration with Roland Specker for the project for Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate . In 2001 he designed the facade of the house in Karlstrasse in collaboration with the master painter Dieter Siegel-Pieper. 28 in Duisburg- Ruhrort , commonly known as the "Bananenhaus". Since 2004 he has been working on the series Goldstücke and since 2005 on the series Crowds , Holocaust , Supermarket and City Pictures in acrylic painting. Baumgärtel has been working on the series Vacation Pictures in acrylic painting since 2006 .

He designed the festival poster for the SWR 3 New Pop Festival 2007 in Baden-Baden and Rastatt. From 2008-2010 he sprayed 100 bananas for the Ruhr area as part of the project of the same name .

Baumgärtel has been working on the project for the Ruhr area Phoenix from the ashes with a 30 meter high steel sculpture on a blast furnace in Dortmund-Hörde since 2008 .

In March 2012 he sprayed a peace banana with chalk spray on Cologne Cathedral as part of a peace campaign by the Cologne Youth Association. In early 2015, in response to the attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, he sprayed a house wall in Neuwied. The local gallery showed some of his works there until September 2015. Baumgärtel lives and works in Cologne.

There was a scandal in February 2018 during Art Karlsruhe in connection with Baumgärterl's caricature Turkish dictator , which shows Turkish President Erdoğan leaning forward with a bare lower body and a banana in his buttocks. After loud protests and threats, the gallery owner removed the picture, Baumgärtel then separated from him and spoke of censorship and threats to artistic freedom.

At the beginning of October 2018, the Turkish dictator again caused Turkish nuisance at Baumgärtel's exhibition Political Works in the Cubus Kunsthalle in Duisburg . There were threats on the Internet and an intervention by the Turkish consulate general in Düsseldorf . The opening of the exhibition had to be carried out under police protection.

Public collections

A spray banana at the entrance to the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany , Bonn

Germany

• Collection K20, Art Collection North Rhine-Westphalia , Düsseldorf
• Collection Sparkasse KölnBonn
• Collection of the German Glass Painting Museum, Linnich
• Collection gallery of the city of Sindelfingen
• Collection of Leopold Hoesch Museum Düren
• Collection of the Industrial Museum , Leverkusen
• Collection Kölnisches Stadtmuseum , Cologne
• Collection Kunstverein Bad Salzdetfurth eV
• Museum Goch Collection
• Siegerland Museum Collection of the City of Siegen
• Collection of the City Collections of Schweinfurt
• Collection Wilhelm Fabry Museum , Hilden
• Collection of the German Blade Museum in Solingen
• Collection Kunsthalle Schweinfurt
• City of Schwetzingen Collection, Art Association

Italy

• La Serpara Collection

Switzerland

• Kunsthaus Grenchen Collection

literature

• Stephan Grünewald , Andrea Brandl, Meinrad Maria Grewenig , Stephan Mann, Dorothee Baer-Bogenschütz, Detlef H. Mache , Valeri Lalov, Henriette Reker : Thomas Baumgärtel 2019/2020 Editor: Meinrad Maria Grewenig, published by Wienand Verlag, Cologne, 2019, ( German / English) ISBN 978-3-86832-515-7 .
• Stijn Coppejans: Thomas Baumgärtel Elementaire Deeltjes - Elementarteilchen Publisher: Galerie Schoots + Van Duyse, Antwerp, 2017.
• Frank Krämer: Urban Art! Biennale 2015 Editor: Meinrad Maria Grewenig, 2015, ISBN 978-3-88423-510-2 .
• Dirk Balke: 25 years of German unity. Editor: Dirk Balke - Galerie ART ECK, Solingen, Düsseldorf, 2015.
• Gérard Margaritis: Thomas Baumgärtel - COLOGNE @ 30WORKS. Published by: 30works Gallery Cologne, 2015.
• Erich Schneider, Andrea Brandl: "Wegmarken", editor: Dr. Erich Schneider, Kunsthalle Schweinfurt, (Schweinfurter Museumschriften Volume 200/2014) ISBN 978-3-936042-85-6 .
• Andreas Blühm: Thomas Baumgärtel - In the beginning there was the banana. Published by: Heart and Diabetes Center NRW, Bad Oeynhausen, 2013.
• Gérard Margaritis: Thomas Baumgärtel - SPRAYGRAMME @ 30WORKS. Published by: 30works Gallery Cologne, 2013.
• Gérard Margaritis: Thomas Baumgärtel - CMYK. Published by: 30works Gallery Cologne, 2012.
• Gérard Margaritis: Thomas Baumgärtel - 25YEARS. Published by: 30works Gallery Cologne, 2011.
• Sandra evening, Wolfgang Antweiler: Thomas Baumgärtel - The medical block. Publisher: Wilhelm-Fabry-Museum, Hilden, 2009, ISBN 978-3-940710-03-1 .
• Bettina Baumgärtel: Thomas Baumgärtel-Bananenenzyklopädie. Publisher: Museum Goch, 2008 (German / English).
• Raab, Mann, Eimert, Knack, Schuth: Thomas Baumgärtel 1997–2007. Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg, 240 pages, 2008 (German / English) ISBN 978-3-939583-36-3 .
• Andrea Brandl and Ingrid Raab: German Unity. Editor: Dr. Erich Schneider (Schweinfurter Museumsschriften Volume 143/2006) ISBN 3-936042-26-8 .
• Dorothee Baer-Bogenschütz: OVER-SPRAYING. 2004.
• Stephan Mann: Kings of Hearts. Publisher: Museum Goch, Siegerlandmuseum Siegen, Kunsthalle Pirmasens, 2002, ISBN 3-926245-58-1 .
• Michael Euler-Schmidt: Fruit pictures - multi-colored banana pointillism. Published by: Siegwerk-Museum Siegburg, 2001.
• Bernhard van Treeck : The great graffiti dictionary. Berlin: Schwarzkopf and Schwarzkopf, 2001 Completely revised. New edition
• Otto Pannewitz: Thomas Baumgärtel & Harald Klemm - German Unity . Editor: Galerie Schageshof, Willich and new art gallery, Konstanz / Karlsruhe, 2000.
• Bernhard van Treeck: Pochoir - the art of stencil graffiti. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin, 2000.
• Bernhard van Treeck: Street Art Berlin. Berlin: Schwarzkopf and Schwarzkopf, 1999.
• Birgit Schwarz: Art Places Trier. 1998.
• O. Pannewitz, H.Schuster: Kings of Hearts - MS Bastian, Thitz, Thomas Baumgärtel. Published: Galerie der Stadt Sindelfingen, 1998, ISBN 3-928222-29-5 .
• Michael Euler-Schmidt: Banana Spray Pictures 1995–1997. Publisher: Stadtmuseum Köln, 1997, ISBN 3-9500729-0-X .
• Thomas Baumgärtel: Art Journal No. 17. Publisher: NN-Fabrik, Oslip, 1997.
• Hans-Christian Heiling, Gerard Kever, Simon Stockhausen: Spray pictures - no more war, only bananas. Published: Politischer Club Colonia (PCC) Cologne, 1996.
• Bernhard van Treeck: Street Art Cologne. Moers: Ed. Aragon, 1996.
• R. Mißelbeck, K. Flemming and B. van Treeck: Work on the Spraybanane 1986-1996. Published by Kunstkontakte, 1996.
• Herzogenrath, Salber, B. Baumgärtel, Grüterich, Sauerbier, Kier, Stahl: Art Places Cologne. Ed .: Th.Baumgärtel & W.Wangler, Verlag: Symbol, 1988, ISBN 3-926325-09-7 .

Web links

Commons : Thomas Baumgärtel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Web presence of Thomas Baumgärtel
• The people's banana for everyone
• Literature by and about Thomas Baumgärtel in the catalog of the German National Library
• "The world's largest banana" in the small residence Kirchheimbolanden

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Thomas Baumgärtel - Under the Sign of the Banana ( Memento of the original from June 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Exhibition from September 24th to October 31st, 2003 
2. ^ RP ONLINE: Duisburg: Ruhrorter Bananenhaus has a birthday. Retrieved August 1, 2019 . 
3. ↑ 100 bananas for the Ruhr area on ruhrnachrichten.de from July 16, 2008
4. ↑ Phoenix blast furnace building application for giant banana approved ( memento of the original from October 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on ruhrnachrichten.de from June 22, 2010 1:42 p.m.
5. ↑ Martin Boldt: Banana sprayer paints the cathedral facade , accessed on March 16, 2012, updated March 20, 2012
6. ↑ Thomas Baumgärtel sprays in Neuwied
7. ^ Scandal at the art fair: Erdogan supporters force removal of an image. February 23, 2018, accessed August 1, 2019 . 
8. ^ Art Karlsruhe: Erdogan cartoon removed due to protest. In: Spiegel Online . February 23, 2018, accessed June 9, 2018 . 
9. ↑ Tim Harpers: Controversial Erdogan picture: Massive threats against art exhibition in Duisburg. Retrieved August 1, 2019 .